Friday, July 27, 2007

# 3 of the Top 5 old Tour de France drugs

In the Top 5 old Tour de France drugs the third place was missing. Number 3 is a bit mysterious.


3) Trimethyl

You may wonder: Trimethyl what? Trimethylsilyl azide? Trimethylsulfonium iodide?


Well, I don't know. Nobody knows it seems.


The British cyclist, Arthur Linton from Wales is often reported as the first cyclist who died because of drugs.

It is often said that Linton died in 1886 because of an overdose 'trimethyl'. This trimethyl stuff must be quite awesome because ten years after his death Linton won the race Bordeaux - Paris (1896).

In 1896 Linton died again, this time of typhoid fever, a few weeks after Bordeaux - Paris.

And here they write

Arthur Linton, an English cyclist died from the effects of a stimulant (trimethyl) while riding in the Tour de France.

The first Tour de France was in 1903, so Linton died at least three times.

This trimethyl-something is quite amazing.

3 comments:

Wavefunction said...

I think Robert Oppenheimer named his boat "Trimethy". Apparently, one source says that this was derived from "trimethyl oxide". But no one knows for sure.

Anonymous said...

trimethyl — a blend of strychnine, heroin, caffeine, and cocaine in ethanol.

Also, Linton's death, in June 1896, 6 weeks after his major victory, was attributed to Typhoid Fever. Although it's very likely he used drugs during racing, as did many others. His trainer, Choppy Warburton was banned from English cycling for drug issues.

Anonymous said...

I should mention that the "Trimethyl" label probably comes from trimethylxanthine ( aka Caffeine ), but it appears that the generic term was also used to describe the above cocktail and similiar blends.